Keynote Speakers
Join us for this exclusive event that promises to ignite inspiration, challenge perceptions, and foster meaningful dialogue on critical issues shaping our society. Join us as we proudly present two distinguished thought leaders, Lisa Rice and Darrick Hamilton, in a captivating presentation that will leave you informed, enlightened, and empowered.
Lisa Rice
President and CEO, National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA)
As President and CEO, Lisa Rice directs the National Fair Housing Alliance’s (NFHA) mission to eliminate all forms of housing discrimination and ensure equitable housing opportunities for all people and communities. NFHA leads the fair housing movement and is the trade association for over 170 member organizations throughout the country.
Ms. Rice is a published author contributing to several books and journals addressing a range of fair housing issues including – The Fight for Fair Housing: Causes, Consequences, and Future Implications of the 1968 Federal Fair Housing Act; Designed for the Future: 80 Practical Ideas for a Sustainable World; Discriminatory Effects of Credit Scoring on Communities of Color; and From Foreclosure to Fair Lending: Advocacy, Organizing, Occupancy, and the Pursuit of Equitable Credit.
She is one of the nation’s leading experts on fair housing, lending, and Responsible AI policies having played major roles in crafting sections of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, establishing the Office of Fair Lending within the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and implementing other legislative and policy initiatives. She also helped lead the investigation and resolution of precedent-setting fair housing and lending cases securing remedies for millions of people as well as the elimination of systemic discriminatory practices.
Ms. Rice serves on the Board of Directors of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, Center for Responsible Lending, and FinRegLab as well as various Advisory Councils. She has received numerous awards including the National Housing Conference’s Housing Visionary Award and was selected as one of TIME Magazine’s 2024 ‘Closers.’
Ms. Rice is a published author contributing to several books and journals addressing a range of fair housing issues including – The Fight for Fair Housing: Causes, Consequences, and Future Implications of the 1968 Federal Fair Housing Act; Designed for the Future: 80 Practical Ideas for a Sustainable World; Discriminatory Effects of Credit Scoring on Communities of Color; and From Foreclosure to Fair Lending: Advocacy, Organizing, Occupancy, and the Pursuit of Equitable Credit.
She is one of the nation’s leading experts on fair housing, lending, and Responsible AI policies having played major roles in crafting sections of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, establishing the Office of Fair Lending within the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and implementing other legislative and policy initiatives. She also helped lead the investigation and resolution of precedent-setting fair housing and lending cases securing remedies for millions of people as well as the elimination of systemic discriminatory practices.
Ms. Rice serves on the Board of Directors of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, Center for Responsible Lending, and FinRegLab as well as various Advisory Councils. She has received numerous awards including the National Housing Conference’s Housing Visionary Award and was selected as one of TIME Magazine’s 2024 ‘Closers.’
Darrick Hamilton
Professor of Economics & Urban Policy, The New School
Darrick Hamilton is a university professor at the Henry Cohen Professor of Economics and Urban Policy and the founding director of the Institute on Race, Power and Political Economy at The New School. Hamilton’s work examines the intersections of social stratification, power and political economy in order to advance scholarship, practice, and policy as they relate to promoting economic inclusion, social equity, and civic engagement.
Power Panel
Get ready for insights from our powerhouse lineup of housing experts, innovators, and thought leaders who are reshaping industries, challenging norms, and driving change.
Ajamu Kitwana
Senior Vice President/Director, Community Impact, ESL Federal Credit Union
As Senior Vice President & Director, Community Impact, Ajamu supports ESL’s mission to share our financial success and reinvest in our community. Ajamu leads ESL’s Community Impact team and its commitment to collaboration to build a healthy, resilient, and equitable Greater Rochester community.
To achieve this vision, Ajamu and the Community Impact team manage key initiatives of expanding individual opportunity, building strong neighborhoods, and strengthening organizations and systems. The Foundation provides grants to many community initiatives driving meaningful and measurable change in the Great Rochester area.
Ajamu originally joined ESL Federal Credit Union in fall 2013 as the manager of the new ESL Consumer Prosperity Program, established to enhance community solutions for financial inclusion. In January 2016, Ajamu was promoted to Executive Director of the ESL Charitable Foundation (Foundation), and to Vice President in 2018.
Prior to joining ESL, Ajamu was a management consultant with FSR Social Impact Advisors and worked on a variety of collective impact, shared value and social justice initiatives.
Ajamu received a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and holds both his Bachelor and Master of Science Degrees in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Stanford University. He presently serves on the WXXI Board of Trustees.
Tysharda Johnson-Thomas
Associate Broker at New 2 U Homes
Former HBCU Graduate, she dedicated 14 years of her life in the field of education. She started her career as a preschool teacher at Action for a Better Community and concluded it as a President’s Awardee at The Urban League of Rochester, where she coordinated a youth intervention program. She is glad that she stepped out on faith and left a career that she had loved for so long to pursue something that she is now so passionate about!
Mrs. Johnson-Thomas’ next endeavor would be in the world of real estate. After two years of fasting and praying, kicking and screaming, and not wanting to let go of the stability that her 9-5 afforded her, in 2009 she joined her husband full-time in their real estate brokerage.
New 2 U Homes was a mobile office for about four years. They realized that a central location was needed where their clients could come and get personalized service, so in 2012 they opened their current office in the Heart of Downtown in the High Falls area. Since then Tysharda has helped New 2 U Homes grow tremendously, she specializes in listening to their buyers, finding the perfect home for them, and then negotiating the best deal possible.
New 2 U Homes is a full-service real estate brokerage that assists its clients from credit to closing. They educate their buyers, assist with First Time Home Buyers grant programs, and even attend most client closings. Tysharda and New 2 U Homes saw the need for first-time homebuyers to have someone in their corner advocating on their behalf. They also saw that there was a great need for home buyers’ education, advocacy, and just a familiar face to remain with them throughout the process. Due to their dedication, leadership, and hard work, in November 2014 New 2 U Homes was recognized by the Greater Rochester Area of Realtors for obtaining platinum status (Selling 100 homes in 1 year). They achieved their goal of becoming the first African American independently owned real estate brokerage in Rochester, NY to achieve platinum status. Mrs. Johnson-Thomas loves seeing the faces and tears of her clients when she hands them their keys at the closing table.
Her most recent accomplishment is being the author of The First-Time Homebuyers Handbook: From Credit to Closing and Beyond! This is a culmination of years of knowledge and expertise all bundled up into a detailed but user-friendly guide to walk you through the home-buying process.
Tysharda has taken on a new passion in her role as the Chair of the Greater Rochester Association of REALTORS ®️ Black Caucus, where she assists the Caucus with its mission of supporting black realtors and creating a greater awareness of the historical and contemporary realities of structural racism, that has led to significant disparities in housing between Black and White Americans. Tysharda also is Chair of the GRAR Equitable Opportunities Committee, and sits on the GRAR Finance Committee.
Tysharda enjoys teaching new and seasoned agents at her local real estate association, motivational speaking, Auntie Wednesdays with her nephews and nieces and traveling with her husband Christopher of now 20 years of marriage.
Sandra Park
Chief of the NYS Office of Attorney General’s Civil Rights Bureau
Sandra Park serves as the Chief of the Civil Rights Bureau of the New York State Office of the Attorney General, where she leads a team of attorneys, analysts, and other staff to enforce federal, state, and local civil rights laws across New York state. The Civil Rights Bureau challenges discrimination and other violations of legal rights in education, employment, housing, law enforcement, voting, and public accommodations, among other issues.
Prior to joining the Office of the Attorney General, Sandra worked for 16 years in the ACLU Women’s Rights Project. At the national ACLU, Sandra engaged in litigation, policy advocacy, and public education to advance gender equality and the rights of women and girls. Much of her work focused on holding institutions accountable for perpetuating violence and discrimination in housing, law enforcement response, and schools. Sandra’s efforts produced key precedent and new federal and state laws and guidance promoting the civil rights of survivors, fair housing, and effective policing of domestic and sexual violence.
Sandra also developed the ACLU’s work expanding patients’ genetic privacy rights and addressing the intersection of patent regulation and civil liberties. She represented twenty medical and women’s health organizations, geneticists, and patients in a ground-breaking lawsuit challenging the U.S. Patent Office’s policy of granting patents on human genes, resulting in a unanimous 2013 U.S. Supreme Court ruling invalidating patents on two human genes linked to hereditary breast and ovarian cancers (Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics).
Sandra received the 2024 NYU Law Women Alumna of the Year Award as well as the 2021 Sharon L. Corbitt Award, bestowed by the American Bar Association to recognize exceptional service and leadership to improving the legal response to domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking by an attorney. She began her legal career as a Skadden Fellow at the Legal Aid Society of New York in the Bronx Neighborhood Office. She clerked for U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein of the Southern District of New York and graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College and NYU School of Law.
